Safety lock



Sept. 26, 1%?

A. SOLER MARTI ETAL SAFETY LOCK Filed April 16, 1965 United States Patent 3,343,385 SAFETY LOCK Antonio Soler Marti, Jose Soler Marti, Juan Soler Marti, and Mario Soler Marti, all of Rambla de Cataluna, 10, Barcelona, Spain Filed Apr. 16, 1965, Ser. No. 448,779 Claims priority, application Spain, Apr. 24, 1964, 299,140 Claims. (Cl. 70--313) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A safety lock apparatus having a selector axle and a feeler axle coaxially housed therein and a plurality of toothed discs, each disc having a radially extending notch therein. When the notches are aligned, an axially extending bar is caused to be inserted into the channel defined by the aligned notches by rotation of the selector axle which in turn causes the movement of a locking plate from a locking to an unlocking position and at the same time causes the pivoting of a member to Which the axially extending bar is attached into a position Whereat the bar is inserted into the aligned notches. The feeler axle is longitudinally, reciprocatingly acted upon to move a plurality of toothed racks vertically a predetermined distance, which toothed racks are caused to be in meshing engagement with said toothed disc. The predetermined movement of the toothed racks establishes the preselected position of notches on the discs whereby the axially extending bar can be received therein.

The patent for which application is being made concerns a safety lock which is applicable to all kinds of doors, including those of strongrooms and safes.

The lock which forms the subject of this patent application offers, among other advantages, that of preventing its being possible to determine by acoustical means and with a certain degree of approximation the combination established for the opening of a safe. The lock in question is not subjected to any great mechanical force, due to the fact that it limits itself to blocking the mechanical mechanism for opening the doors of safes when the said door ought to remain closed, and to free the said mechanism When it is desired to open the door by acting on the series of levers and belts which are normally moved by means of a Wheel or lever of the appropriate dimensions to support the mechanical eflFort which the displacement of the bolts supposes.

The basic principle of the lock for which patent application is being made consists in causing a series of strips to be displaced through a pre-established number of steps, thereby causing the rotation of a series of discs through angular magnitudes proportional to the displacements of the corresponding strips, the discs remaining in such a position that they all present a notch which is cut in their periphery in a position facing a bar Which under these conditions can penetrate and displace a piece which acts as a stop which blocks the movement of the handoperated bolt for opening the door on which there is fixed the lock which is the subject of this patent application.

The step by step displacement of the strips the object of which is to cause to rotate also at fixed angular steps the discs with which they mesh may be replaced by the angular displacement of a wheel, the movement forward of which can be eifected either by means of a projecting piece or a pawl fixed on a suitable rotating arm. I

In FIGURE 1 an exploded view is given of the totality of the elements which constitute a constructive form in accordance with the patent application of locks for safes.

.All the toothed strips,

3,343,385 Patented Sept. 26, 1967 The right-hand side of the said FIGURE 1 represents the inner face of the lock, which is accessible only to the owner of the safe once the door has been opened. The left-hand side of the same shows the outer face of t lock and door.

The knob or selector axle 1 has an axial recess in which there may be displaced a feeler knob 2 which forms a solid part with a bar 3 which is fixedly attached to a wedge 4 whose bevel surface 5 is supported on the rectilinear part 6 of the recess 7 of a feeler plate having a cross-piece 8. Wedge 4 is received in the orifice 9 of the cover of the lock and is restrained from rotation due to the projecting piece 10 on the cover which fits into the groove 11 of the wedge 4.

The sliding movement of the knob 2 and the wedge 4 is independent of the rotational movement of the knob 1. On turning the knob 1 in the direction of the arrow 12 the ratchet 13, in the form of a polygon turns thus overcoming the action of the tongue 14 which is pressed by the spring 15 against the ratchet 13 to cause the knob 1 to occupy stable positions in its rotation. The rotation of the whole complex is limited by the escape wheel or ratchet 16 and pawl 17 operated by the corresponding spring. Each tooth of the escape wheel 16 corresponds to the retention of the knob 1 in one of its stable positions with the exception of that which corresponds to the last position Which it can occupy. As can be seen in the draw ing, this last position does not correspond to any tooth facing the pawl 17. This makes it possible to impart a short turning movement to the knob in the direction given by the arrow 18, which turning movement is termed in this description as a trip turn.

The normal turning movement 12 of the knob 1 also causes one of the several transverse notches 19 to take up the position indicated in section 20. Consequently, the upper end or finger of the lever 21, which is facing the notch 19, can penetrate into the said notch because of the pushing action of the spring 22 against the lower end of lever 21. On rotating the lever 21 around its axis 23 the tooth 24 engages one of a plurality of teeth carried by the edge of strip 25 which faces level 21.

On pressing the knob 2, in accordance with what has been previously explained, the bevel 5 is pushed against the edge 6 of the cross-piece 8, which in turn moves in an upward direction. The two projecting members 25 and 26 of cross-piece 8 moves upwardly thereby engaging the two pivots 27 (only one of which is seen in the figure) of the plate 28 to which is also attached the common axis or pivot 23 of all the levers 21 on engagement of the pivots 27 by the upwardly moving members 25 and 26. The plate 28 moves upwardly. The upward movement of the plate 28 causes the levers 21 also to move upwardly and the engagement of the tooth 24 of the lever 21 with the tooth portion of the strip 25 causes the strip 25 also to move upwardly thereby overcoming the action of the restraining springs 29. This vertical movement of the plate 28 and the axis 23 causes the upper part of the lever 21 to slip into its notch 20' without changing the position of the lever. In other words, tooth 24 is maintained in meshing engagement with the strip 25. The turning axis 32 of the knob 1 is not vertically displaced since it is fixed in the sleeve 30 which forms part of the plate 31. The sleeve 30 has a lateral opening so that the levers 21 can engage in the notches 19 of the axis 32 moved by the knob 1. of which only one, 25, is seen, are retained in the position reached by the retention piece 33 of a lever 34 which is pressed by the spring 35 against a series of notches 36 provided on strip 25.

The repetition of the process described for each one of the stable positions which the knob 1 can occupy causes the successive lifting of all the strips 25. Under these conditions each strip 25 is engaged by a toothed wheel 37 provided with a notch 38 and causes said wheel 37 to rotate a predetermined distance to a position shown in dotted line 39. When all strips 25 have rotated their corresponding toothed wheel 37 a distance sufficient so that all the notches 38 are in alignment at a predetermined position opposite bar 40, as at 39, said bar 40 which is fixed on a lever 41 will enter into the aligned notches 38 of the discs 37 on the downward movement of plate 44 to which lever 41 is operatively connected by means of pin 42 being in camming engagement with the oblique groove 43 of plate 44. The said plate 44 can slide downwardly pulling in its downward movement a block 45 which in its raised position blocks the hand-operated mechanism for opening the door. The said block is shown by dotted lines in the figure since it falls towards the inner side of the lock 9. The downward movement of the plate 44 is brought about by pressing and imparting to the knob 1 a movement in the direction of the arrow 18 which causes the rotation of the escape wheel 16 to the position shown in the figure wherein the pawl 17 is facing the most widely spaced tooth thereof. Also on rotation of knob 1 in the direction shown by the arrow 18 the pawl 46 is also rotated so that it engages one end of lever 47 thus causing said one end to pivot upwardly while the other end 48 of said lever 47 housed in an appropriate notch of the plate 44 obliges said plate 44 to move downwardly thereby overcoming the action of the corresponding springs 49. This downward movement will only be possible if the bar 40 is facing all the grooves 38 of the discs of the combination.

Once the combination has been set in this manner, on freely turning the knob 1 to any position the pawl 46 does not touch the lever 47 and the plate 44 moves upwardly bringing with it, by means of the recess 50, the pivot 51 of the lever 52. Simultaneously with this upward movement the bar 53 tips all the angular levers 34 freeing their teeth 33 from the strips 25 all of which descend at the same time. With the descent of the strips 25, the discs 37 engaged thereby are cause to rotate clockwise thus displacing the notches 38 from their previous position where they were aligned opposite rod 40 to receive the same. This displacement of notches 38 prevents the downward movement of the plate 44 and the blocking stop 45, so the door cannot be opened.

Thus in order to open the door it will be necessary for the knob 1 to occupy the first stable position and to press the button 2 the number of times previously determined so that the first of the strips 25 and the corresponding disc 37 may occupy such a position that the recess 38 is situated facing the rod 40. The knob is then moved, in the direction shown by arrow 12, to a second stable position which is determined by the tongue 14 pressing against the pawl 13. The groove 19 of the axis 32 turns and separates the corresponding lever 21 so that its tooth 24 disengages the strip 25 which is retained in position by the tooth 33. In the second stable position a new notch 19 faces a new lever 21, the tooth 24 of which engages a new strip 25 and a new wheel 37. The button 2 is pressed as many times as may be necessary in accordance with the setting previously made so that the new disc 37 may be caused to move its notch to face the rod 40. This operation is continued until the relevant combination has been effected, at which moment the wheel 16 will now permit the small trip turn represented by the arrow 18.

It has been seen that in order to set the combination it was necessary that the discs 37 should have their notches lined up and retained by the rod 40, since to effect the choice of combination the door must be open. This, of course, requires that the plate 44 be in its lower position which, in turn, requires that the rod 40 enter into the grooves of all the discs. It was also necessary for the discs to be disengaged from the strips 25, these latter occupying the levels corresponding to the number of pulsations, which for each stable position of the knob 1, were imparted to the button 2 as the opening code. Once the strips 25 were situated at their corresponding heights in accordance with the explanation given and retained by the teeth of the levers 34 was when all the discs were caused to engage with the corresponding toothed edges 54 of the strips 25. This engagement is effected by having the turning axis 55 of all the discs fitted on a plate 56 which can make the discs 37 of the corresponding strips 25 advance or recede on being operated on by a key 57 which entering through the keyhole 58 and engaging in the pawl 59 held in position by the swinging plate 60 brings about a slight movement of the lever 56 and with this the engagement or not of the discs 37 with the strips 25.

In this example, which is not limitative, the method in which the discs engage with the strips 25 may be altered by employing any means at the disposal of the user of the safe in question which shall be accessible only when the door is open. Likewise there may be suppressed the step by step forward movement of the combining strips 25 effected in this example by means of the pulsations of the button 2 by a turning mechanism associated with each one of the stable positions of the knob 1. This invention may also be carried into effect by causing the individual instead of the block displacement of the strips 25 which is indicated in this constructive example.

Finally, there also forms part of this invention the replacement of the combination strips 25 by an equivalent number of toothed wheels have been placed in the position of which a choice has been made for the code.

What we claim is:

1. A safety lock comprising a plurality of superposed discs each having a notch and a toothed portion on the circumferential edge thereof, an axle on which said discs are freely rotatably mounted, a plurality of toothed strips, one for each of said discs, and each having a toothed portion on one edge thereof engageable with the toothed portion of one of said discs, and a toothed portion on the opposite edge thereof, a plurality of levers, one for each toothed strip and each having a tooth thereon engageable between the teeth of said toothed portion on said opposite edge of said strip, and a finger portion spaced from said tooth, a lever carrying plate on which said levers are pivotally mounted in superimposed position, said lever carrying plate being vertically reciprocally movable, a rotatable selector axle having a knob on one end thereof and extending between the space between said teeth and said fingers on said levers and provided with a plurality of grooves axially and circumferentially spaced from each other and adaptable to receive one of said fingers on said lever on rotation of said selector axle in a first direction, spring means bearing against said lever urging said fingers into engagement with said grooves, whereby when a finger engages a groove the tooth on the lever is engaged with one of said strips, said selector axle having a longitudinally extending bore therethrough, a feeler axle mounted for longitudinal reciprocation in said selector axle bore and having a knob on one end thereof adjacent said selector knob, the other end of said feeler axle fixedly attached to a wedge member having an inclined surface, a feeler plate mounted for vertical reciprocation having adjacent one end an aperture therein to receive said wedge member and adjacent the other end projecting means engageable with said lever carrying plate whereby on longitudinal reciprocation of said feeler axle a predetermined number of times the inclined surface of said wedge is received in the aperture of said feeler plate to move the same upwardly so that the projecting members thereof engage said lever carrying plate to move said plate upwardly and in turn causing the tooth of said lever to move upwardly a predetermined number of times whereby said disc is rotated through a predetermined angle to locate the notch thereof at a preselected position, an axially extending bar mounted on a pivotable lever, said bar bearing against the periphery of said notched discs, said pivotable lever being in camming engagement with a vertically reciprocable locking plate, spring means urging said locking plate in a locking position, second pivotable lever means engaging at one end thereof with said locking plate and at the other end with pawl means provided on said selector axle whereby on locating said notches of said discs at said preselected position to receive said axially extending bar said selector axle is rotated in .a second direction so that said pawl means engages said second pivotable lever means engaging said locking plate thereby urging said locking plate into an unlocking position and simultaneously urging said axially extending bar into said notches.

2. The safety lock of claim 1 including tongue means in resilient engagement with ratchet means mounted on said selector axle to define a plurality of rotational positions of said selector axle.

3. The safety lock of claim 2 including a pawl means resiliently engaging a toothed escape wheel mounted on said selector axle, the teeth of said Wheel corresponding to the rotational positions of said selector axle defined by said ratchet and tongue means with the angular separation, one pair of said teeth being greater than the angular separation of the remaining teeth thereon to permit rotation of said selector axle in said second direction. I

4. The safety lock of claim 1 including means for releasably retaining each said strip in engagement with the toothed portion of each of said discs when said discs have been rotated so that the notch of each is in said predetermined position to receive said axially aligned bar, said means comprising a first pivotable member provided with a toothed portion on an edge thereof facing said one toothed edge of said strip, spring means attached to said first pivotable member urging said toothed portion into engagement with said toothed strip and a second pivotable member provided with pin means received in an aperture in said locking plate whereby on movement of said locking plate from an unlocking to locking position said second member pivots thereby pivoting said first pivotable member out of engagement with said strip.

5. The safety lock of claim 1 including means for restraining the rotational movement of said feeler axle.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,853,257 9/ 1920 Mample 31'3 X 1,483,993 2/1924 Sprowles et al 70--3'13 X 2,566,967 9/ 1951' Capdevila 70-3 13 X 2,886,962 5/1959 Marti et al. 70-306 BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner. 

1. A SAFETY LOCK COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF SUPERPOSED DISCS EACH HAVING A NOTCH AND A TOOTHED PORTIN ON THE CIRCUMFERENTIAL EDGE THEREOF, AN AXLE ON WHICH SAID DISCS ARE FREELY ROTATABLY MOUNTED, A PLURALITY OF TOOTHED STRIPS, ONE FOR EACH OF SAID DISCS, AND EACH HAVING A TOOTHED PORTION ON ONE EDGE THEREOF ENGAGEABLE WITH THE TOOTHED PORTION OF ONE OF SAID DISCS, AND A TOOTHED PORTION ON THE OPPOSITE EDGE THEREOF, A PLURALITY OF LEVERS, ONE FOR EACH TOOTHED STRIP AND EACH HAVING A TOOTH THEREON ENGAGEABLE BETWEEN THE TEETH OF SAID TEETH PORTION ON SAID OPPOSITE EDGE, OF SAID STRIP, AND A FINGER PORTION SPACED FROM SAID TOOTH, A LEVER CARRYING PLATE ON WHICH SAID LEVERS ARE PIVOT ALLY MOUNTED IN SUPERIMPOSED POSITION, SAID LEVER CARRYING PLATE BEING VERTICALLY RECIPROCALLY MOVABLE, A ROTATABLE SELECTOR AXLE HAVING A KNOB ON ONE END THEREOF AND EXTENDING BETWEEN THE SPACE BETWEEN SAID TEETH AND SAID FINGERS ON SAID LEVERS AND PROVIDED WITH A PLURALITY OF GROOVES AXIALLY AND CIRCUMFERENTIALLY SPACED FROM EACH OTHER AND ADAPTABLE TO RECEIVE ONE OF SAID FINGERS ON SAID LEVER ON ROTATION OF SAID SELECTOR AXLE IN A FIRST DIRECTION, SPRING MEANS BEARING AGAINST SAID LEVER URGING SAID FINGERS INTO ENGAGEMENT WITH SAID GROOVES, WHEREBY WHEN A FINGER ENGAGES A GROOVE THE TOOTH ON THE LEVER IS ENGAGED WITH ONE OF SAID STRIPS, SAID SELECTOR AXLE HAVING A LONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING BORE THERETHOUGH, A FEELER AXLE MOUNTED FOR LONGITUDINAL RECIPROCATION IN SAID SELECTOR AXLE BORE AND HAVING A KNOB ON ONE END THEREOF ADJACENT SAID SELECTOR KNOB, THE OTHER END OF SAID FEELER AXLE FIXEDLY ATTACHED TO A WEDGE MEMBER HAVING AN INCLINED SURFACE, A FEELER PLATE MOUNTED FOR VERTICAL RECIPROCATION HAVING ADJACENT ONE END AN APERTURE THEREIN TO RECEIVE SAID WEDGE MEMBER AND ADJACENT THE OTHER END PROJECTING MEANS ENGAGEABLE WITH SAID LEVER CARRYING PLATE WHEREBY ON LONGITUDINAL RECIPROCATION OF SAID FEELER AXLE A PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF TIMES THE INCLINED SURFACE OF SAID WEDGE IS RECEIVED IN THE APERTURE OF SAID FEELER PLATE TO MOVE THE SAME UPWARDLY SO THAT THE PROJECTING MEMBERS THEREOF ENGAGE SAID LEVER CARRYING PLATE TO MOVE SAID PLATE ENGAGE SAID LEVER CAUSING THE TOOTH OF SAID LEVER TO MOVE UPWARDLY A PREDETEMINED NUMBER OF TIMES WHEREBY SAID DISC IS ROTATED THROUGH A PREDETERMINED ANGLE TO LOCATE THE NOTCH THEREOF AT A PRESELECTED POSITION, AN AXIALLY EXTENDING BAR MOUNTED ON A PIVOTABLE LEVER, SAID BAR BEARING AGAINST THE PERIPHERY OF SAID NOTCHED DISCS, SAID PIVOTABLE LEVER BEING IN CAMMING ENGAGEMENT WITH A VERTICALLY RECIPROCABLE LOCKING PLATE, SPRING MEANS URGING SAID LOCKING PLATE IN A LOCKING POSITION, SECOND PIVOTABLE LEVER MEANS ENGAGING AT ONE END THEREOF WITH SAID LOCKING PLATE AND AT THE OTHER END WITH PAWL MEANS PROVIDED ON SAID SELECTOR AXLE WHEREBY ON LOCATING SAID NOTCHES OF SAID DISCS AT SAID PRESELECTED POSITION TO RECEIVE SAID AXIALLY EXTENDING BAR SAID SELECTOR AXLE IS ROTATED IN A SECOND DIRECTION SO THAT SAID PAWL MEANS ENGAGES SAID SECOND PIVOTABLE LEVER MEANS ENGAGING SAID LOCKING PLATE THEREBY URGING SAID LOCKING PLATE INTO AN UNLOCKING POSITION AND SIMULTANEOUSLY URGING SAID AXIALLY EXTENDING BAR INTO SAID NOTCHES. 